Nicole Mason-Rawle - HCA Learning Journal.

Blogging all my Research and Personal Work for Hereford College of Arts, FDA Commercial Photography. This is my Sketchbook!

[nicolemason-rawle]

P10 Evaluation.

Throughout this module i have gained new skills and also taught myself a few lessons. I have stuck to my first statement of intent and carried on to develop my skills in video portraiture. Instead of staying at one point with my idea i have tried to develop my idea and i feel i have been successful. 

I have learnt many new techniques with using my camera as a HD video recorder, and feel more comfortable using my camera than before. I had to always use a tripos with it to prevent from camera shake, when videoing or even taking photographs. The recording on the camera is really quite good, however, because i was recording in a church it became very noisy in the background with a hiss throughout all the recordings. 

This wasn't a problem in the end as i edited it down and used the Noise removal tab in Audacity. I made myself learn how to use this program and every time i used it i learnt something new, which i think was vital for my work to be able to grow throughout this project. Removing the background hissing and noises helped my audio to become clearer and easier to listen to. 

Putting the newly edited audio and my video together at first was a challenge but learning how to use i Movie really helped. It taught me different techniques to use with my video whether it was overlapping audio or trimming and lining up video with my audio recordings. 

p10 has defiantly helped me grow with my work and develop my Video Portraiture which i feel is unique to myself to become better. I hope i can carry on this work in Video Portraiture and make it even better. I enjoyed this project and enjoyed getting to know Francis and his story. Although it was a bit hard at times i made my self go for it and in the end it seems to have paid off. I need to understand that not coming in doesn't help a project at all, and i do regret not coming in before christmas for tutorials and lessons in which could of helped me further and enveloped my work a lot more. On the other hand i feel good that i have completed this work and am happy with the end result! 

[nicolemason-rawle]

How well have you realised /achieved your original aims as described in your Statement of Intent?

From the aims and ideas that were in my statement of intent i feel that i have done well to stick by them and to achieve many aims that i set myself. I wanted to create a Video portrait which i have, but i have extended that to a 3-4 minute video portrait on one man. I feel that i have extended my knowledge in video making and film king and have most defiantly achieved what i wanted to do in my statement of intent. 

I have realised that there is nothing that i cant have ago at. Instead of just sticking to one style this time i have achieved many different angles, and techniques like focusing to experiment, which there was no harm in doing.

[nicolemason-rawle]

Which research has had the most impact on the development of your work and why?

The research that i feel has become the most influential to me is the work of Steve Cantor; Blood ties the life and work of Sally Mann, not only is it on my favourite photographer, but it inspired me to try different angles and to not just stick to one way of filming. 

I also think the short film - My favourite picture of you by TJ Martin & Dan Lindsay most defiantly inspired me into making a film that mattered to the person in the film. Although the person in the film has passed away, francis is kind of the same in how his past violent life has passed away and he is living his new one through god. It defiantly spoke more to me and inspired me to do this film. I would like to carry on with Video portraiture.

[nicolemason-rawle]

What skills have you gained during this module?

I have gained a number of skills for this project:

more skills in using my canon camera as a video recorder.

learning how to use and manage the audio setting on my camera

experimenting and learning different angles and techniques to use

how wide i should shoot

and how close is too close

New skills learnt on Audacity - How to remove noise in the background and hissing. 

How to cut audio down

Learnt how to use I Movie

how to line up audio which has been edited with the original video

[nicolemason-rawle]

How well did you manage your time?

I feel that in the middle of the project i did sway off it bait but i managed my time well after i got back on track. I have to admit i have learnt that no matter what happens i have to carry on my work. 

In the end i have managed my time will using spare time to edit and the time i could get access into the church wisely. 

I think with the interviews i had to plan ahead which meant sticking to the time allotted to the people i interviewed which worked well for me. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

What could have improved the outcome of this module?

In this module i think what could of been improved was my attendance to university as well as tutorials and using my time in the college wisely to my advantage of having tutors there for me. 

I will next time attend all tutorials which always help no matter what work i have done, i think as well i want to make sure that my camera is focused properly an to make sure the framing is correct. i feel that some of the angles i have shot for the video portrait have either been a tad wonky or a little out of focus.

[nicolemason-rawle]

This is i Movie the program i have been using to edit down and create my Video Portrait. it is difficult to use the edited Audio and to line it up with the silent video. I found it easy to use and quite relaxing too, I didn't feel stressed at all. Its got a good viewing screen and also good tools to adjust and change the contrast and brightness of the video if needs be. This was useful to me as my videos were filmed in different lights, so to use the adjustments came in handy. 

I used different transitions so the different scenes that i shot flowed nicely into each other and dissolved into each scene. I feel if i didn't use that transition it would of felt very staccato almost and sticky. 

I used the title bit as it came in handy to introduce the movie. i also used it at the end to close it all up. 

Ive learnt a lot using this program and i hope to continue to use it in the future. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

Final Outcome?

After having a play around with different videos and different edits of what i would like this Video Portrait to be like, i decided to show them to a few friends and tutor's to get some feedback and to see where i should go from there. The CD named "Francis - A Reformed Man (With Bill's Interview)" ended up being 8 Minutes long. After a few people were viewing it i could see that they were losing interest after 4 minutes. Although it was interesting to listen to and watch it just became too long.  I included Bill's interview in this because his voice is easy to listen to and he flows easily. i did include Francis's audio and video in this as i defiantly wanted his voice to be in it because after all it is about him. So this brings the question ... Why do i have Bill in a video which is about Francis. Bill's video was in fact longer than any of the videos of Francis which wasn't right. 

After having a think and a talk with numerous people, i have made a decision to cut out bill, and to make it simple again almost like the first film i edited down. I am going to use only the video's of Francis and his audio as well. This i think will work much better, than using different opinions on him from different people. This video portrait is on Francis - A Reformed Man, and that is who we should be seeing in the video and hearing from. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

In my final video and in one of the tested video's i decided to use the video of just the space where Francis sit's without him there. 

I feel that showing this allows the viewer to see how empty the space is without him there, not because he is placed there but because of his spirit. He not only seems to fill a space physically but fills the whole church with his personality.  i did deliberately film them a bit darker then i would with him in it but i do think that this highlights what i think he brings to the church. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

Different Videos.

Here are four different edits i have done for my Video Portrait on Francis. All Four Videos will be put on different CD's to be viewed as they are too big to be uploaded onto tumblr. 

I have gone from a simple video portrait with no audio to a full blown documentary with interviews and the video of the interviews all shown on the films. I felt like this was too much and it also become too long to view. I started to lose interest after 3 minutes and so did a few peers who viewed the videos. 

After feedback and friends viewing my video i realised and came to a dices ion to keep the video portrait to a maximum of 3 minutes and to only use Francis audio in it. On Sunday i finally was able to get bait of Audio from him which worked really well for my project. 

I used i Movie for my video editing software as it was easy to use yet professional, and i wanted it to seem simple, so using just one font at the beginning with a title that intrigues the viewer. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

The Interviews

With each interview i did i feel that i captured a bit of Francis in each one, however it may be about Francis but its not concentrated on just him. Using different interviews and different people other than Francis seems like i am taking the lime light off him, which i feel i shouldn't be doing. This is for him about him and other people and their opinions i feel don't work for this type of video portrait. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

Visit Original Link

William Sand's Interview continues ...

[nicolemason-rawle]

Visit Original Link

William Sand's Interview Continues ...

[nicolemason-rawle]

Visit Original Link

This is the interview with Reverend William Sands. This audio has been edited swell to remove background noise and to help make the recording to become a little bit more clearer. Like Enid's interview it was a video scene but it i will show the video when it is uploaded and all on Vimeo. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

Visit Original Link

This is the full Interview with Enid after asking her on her first impression of Francis. 

The audio has been edited to remove all background noise. It was videoed as well which is in one of my videos that i have made. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

Once you have selected the whole of the audio go back onto effects and noise remover tab and the same window will then appear. Instead of clicking get noise profile this time you need to click the OK button and it will remove all hissing and background noise from your audio.  

I have done this will all my Audio and it sounds much better and clearer now. It helps to listen to audio without background noise as it doesn't distract you. 

[nicolemason-rawle]

After clicking get noise profile it'll close the window, you will then have to double click the whole audio so it is all selected. If you don't do this and only select part of the audio the background noise/hiss will only be removed from the bit you have selected.